Lafayette mom charged with using kids as shields

A Lafayette woman is accused of using her five children, ages 9 to 15, as a human shield around her after refusing to comply with police officers who were searching for a wanted felon staying at the woman's house.

Rachelle L. Billups, 33, was charged Friday in Tippecanoe Circuit Court with neglect of a dependent, assisting a criminal and resisting law enforcement. Two of the counts are Class D felonies, each punishable by six months to three years in prison.

Billups was initially arrested Feb. 15. She was released from the Tippecanoe County Jail later that day after posting a combined $2,500 surety and $250 cash bond.

The incident that led to Billups' arrest began the night of Feb. 14, when a Lafayette police officer noticed a man - later identified as 27-year-old Marquaze S. Johnson of Lafayette - looking at him at the Marathon gas station at Ferry and North Ninth streets, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The man then took off running.

Officer Adam Mellady stopped Johnson behind the gas station, during which he learned that Johnson was wanted on a warrant from Arkansas, the affidavit states. At that point, Johnson allegedly took off again - eventually going into Billups' house at 1007 North St.

According to the affidavit, police asked Billups to send Johnson outside, but she refused. Billups later struck her head out of a window and told officers that neither she nor her children would leave the house. She also stopped communicating with them via phone.

Officers, armed with a search warrant, entered after knocking down the front door. They found Billups sitting on the stair landings with her children surrounding her.

The children pleaded with Billups to let them leave, the affidavit states.

Johnson, who was spotted by another officer on the home's roof, was found in an upstairs closet.